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National retailers -- such as Wal-Mart, Sears, Amazon, and eBay -- and flag manufactures have decided to no longer carry and make Confederate flags. Michigan retailers are joining them.

Under public pressure — and after decisions by national retailers and flag manufacturers not to sell or make Confederate flags — Michigan retailers are facing questions about what to do with their Confederate-themed inventory.

"It's a public relations nightmare," said Jane Miles, the longtime owner of American Flag and Banner in Clawson.

Many of them, like Miles, will discontinue selling them.

The issue, Miles said, stems from decades-long public outrage over the flag -- and last week's shooting at a historically black Charleston church that left nine people dead.

Dylann Roof, 21, who is white and has been attributed with making white supremacist statements and posing with images of the Confederate flag, was charged in the slayings. The killings have touched off a national debate about what the flag means — and whether it should be made, displayed and sold.

National retailers — such as Wal-Mart, Sears, Amazon, and eBay -- and flag manufactures have decided to no longer sell and make them.

At Flags Unlimited in Kentwood, near Grand Rapids, customers have been calling for the last three days to try to buy Confederate flags.

The phone, owner Tim Mohney said, has been ringing off the hook. Mohney said he will sell its inventory of Confederate flags and not replenish it.

"It's never been a very popular design for us," he said. "Our name is Unlimited. We sell everything. I try to sell something for everyone. After this, it was one of those things. We don't need to sell them. The number wasn't there. It's not worth it."

In addition, he said, he has never sold flags with swastikas on them, and when post-apartheid South Africa changed its flag, he stopped selling the old flag because some people viewed it as a symbolic of racism in that country.

Cheryl Lawrence of Flags 'n More in Lakeport, St. Clair County, said she has stopped selling the Confederate flag because her manufacturer recently informed her it would no longer be making it.

She'd already sold out of her stock.

"I've always sold the Confederate battle flag. It's a historical flag," she said. "Do I believe it has connotations of racism? Yes. I believe it's a sign of hate, like the swastika was."

Miles, who has owned a flag store for 34 years, said she took the two Confederate flags she had off her shelves and likely will destroy them after getting pressure from a customer, who complained -- and then sent an e-mail about it to the Free Press.

Mostly, she said, she sold Confederate flags to Civil War re-enactors, who now may have difficulty finding them.

But, she also expressed frustration that a historic American flag has, for all intents and purposes, become taboo.

"Where are you going to get them?" she said. "They probably will disappear and go away."

In many ways, this question cuts to the core of a longstanding question: Do stores follow demand -- or create it?

It also exemplifies just how sensitive companies have become to public criticism.

"The Internet, the 24-hour news cycle and flash-fire social media have made businesses -- and not just retailers -- more sensitive to criticism –- and potential criticism," said Tom Scott, senior vice president of communications and marketing for the Michigan Retailers Association. "Most don't want to be portrayed as uncaring or deaf to the feelings and complaints of their customers or of social norms."

A lot of Americans are upset about this, he said.

At the same time, he added, companies are becoming more socially conscious and are make choices about what to sell -- or not sell -- based on more than just customer needs and wants. They are increasingly trying to make decisions based on what they think might be good for society.